Jennifer Lawrence Speaks Out On Making Less Than Male Co-Stars

Jennifer Lawrence, the world's highest-paid actress, is finally speaking out about earning less than her male co-stars (Photo credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Jennifer Lawrence, the world's highest-paid actress, banked $52 million last year--$28 million less than the world's highest-paid actor, Robert Downey Jr. While neither are low on dough, Lawrence has been short-changed in comparison to her male co-stars--and she is finally speaking out about it.

In an essay published on today's edition of Lenny, the newsletter from Lena Dunham and Girls producer Jenni Konner, Lawrence discusses the difference in her pay from that of her American Hustle male co-stars, which was leaked during the
Sony hack.

"When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with dicks, I didn’t get mad at Sony," writes Lawrence. "I got mad at myself."

"I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early," Lawrence recalls of the 2013 movie. "I didn’t want to keep fighting over millions of dollars that, frankly, due to two franchises, I don’t need."

Lawrence, who was just one of 16 women on the Global Celebrity 100 list of world's highest-earning entertainers, recognizes that her million-dollar-paygap is very different to the problems facing most women. She writes: "It’s hard for me to speak about my experience as a working woman because I can safely say my problems aren’t exactly relatable."

Gwyneth Paltrow (No. 12th on our list of highest-paid actresses) echoed the difficulties in discussing top-tier pay disparities, telling Reuters that Hollywood women have been criticized for speaking out. “You were considered ungrateful, you were considered entitled, so I think it’s amazing that women now are saying ‘we’re going to talk about this. This isn’t fair,'” she said.

Paltrow and Lawrence join a growing chorus acknowledging unequal pay in Hollywood. While top actresses can earn between $10 million to $20 million a film with the option to negotiate a share of the movie’s profits, the opportunities for top remuneration are far less frequent than for men. Lawrence’s Hunger Games is one of few major movies with a woman as its main character. In fact, a recent study found that just 21 of the 100 top-grossing films of 2014 featured a female lead or co-lead, while only 28.1% of characters in 100 top-grossing films were female, period. This means it’s much rarer for women to get the sort of blockbuster role which would warrant the massive backend deals many male counterparts demand (Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible or Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man, for example).

Though Hollywood's women are still well remunerated, it's on a scale far smaller than their male colleagues. The World’s 18 Highest-Paid Actresses earned a combined $281 million before taxes and fees–$660 million less than the 34 World’s Highest-Paid Actors, who banked a cumulative $941 million. Only four actresses made north of $20 million, while 21 actors banked $20 million-plus.

In the U.S., Tinseltown’s pay gap is persistent industry-wide in salaries of all scales. On average, white women get paid 78 cents to every dollar a white man makes, while Hispanic women earn 56 cents to a white male’s dollar, Black women 64 cents and Native American women just 59 cents to that.

As Lawrence notes, women negotiating for higher pay worry about seeming "difficult" or "spoiled." Lawrence says her desire to "be liked" prevented her from arguing her profit cut, "until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realized every man I was working with definitely didn’t worry about being “difficult” or “spoiled.”

Yet she says when she expressed an opinion bluntly and directly, as a man might, she was perceived as offensive.

"I’m over trying to find the “adorable” way to state my opinion and still be likable!" Lawrence writes. "I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a man in charge who spent time contemplating what angle he should use to have his voice heard. It’s just heard."

So what can be done to amplify all women's voices--not just those belonging to wealthy, white actresses? Well, discussing the paygap as Lawrence has is a start. But more hyper-wealthy women need to come out and own their success in order to further the conversation--and inspire everyday women to strive for financial fortitude.

For the record, all of the top-earning female actresses on the Global Celebrity 100 list declined to be featured for FORBES magazine’s 6 million readers in a way that would discuss their triumphs—perhaps because they “feel like it’s flaunting or flashy,” as cover-subject Katy Perry suggested.

Perry cited FORBES’ recent cover story on Honest Company’s Jessica Alba as inspiration to appear on the cover herself. “You have a perception of her as this actress that does these types of films, but now you see her on the cover of Forbes… it’s really like a mark [that] you have made it,” Perry said.

It has taken Lawrence nearly a year to speak out about unfair pay, but here's hoping she continues to do so.

"When it comes to the subject of feminism, I’ve remained ever-so-slightly quiet," wrote Lawrence. Not anymore.